In February 2012, Sarah Albeboure left her job as a primary school teacher to spend a year as a VSO in Lawra in the Upper West Region of Ghana. Sarah was so struck by the needs of people in that area, their efforts hampered by lack of resources, that she founded a charity she called ACTION THROUGH ENTERPRISE. The main aims of the charity remain, they are -to improve school attendance; -to provide free school meals, -to help disabled children integrate into community life, -to provide skill training for owners of small businesses. Responding to an application from ATE, GSA has provided funds for Gombele JHS to buy textbooks (see the entry under GOMBELE JHS). ATE’s website is ateghana.org
Author Archives: Penny Sewell
Mrs. Barbara Baddoo
Barbara Baddoo spent many years in the Gold Coast/Ghana, as the GSA Newsletter 2010-11 feature shows. She recently passed away, and money was raised both at her funeral and online to be given to Ghana School Aid. We thank all those who remembered Barbara in this way and assure them that the £1500 (including GiftAid) will be wisely spent to bring improvement to the education of young Ghanaians.
GUMANI METHODIST PRIMARY “A” AND “B”
There are two Methodist Primary schools at Gumani and they are called “A” and “B”. Mr. Sulley Yaro, Headteacher at school A paid a visit to Zawiatul Primary School and saw some nice new desks marked “donated by GSA”. Information was exchanged between the Muslim and Christian schools, and word even spread to school B. We call that the bush telegraph service! A visit was then paid to our representative Salifu Baaku who in turn visited the schools, took pictures of the dire straits in which they found themselves, with pupils sitting 2 or 3 in desks meant for one, and helped the two schools to make their application for desks to GSA. GSA was delighted to hear of the cooperation amongst the schools and awarded grants of £700 and £600 respectively for the purchase of desks.
GOMBELE JHS, LAWRA, UWR
We were approached by ATE (Action through Enterprise) with a request for funds to support this school which faces severe drop-out and low attendance due to struggling living standards. £1000 was awarded for the purchase of textbooks. To quote the ATE report: The 77 pupils and the staff are overjoyed and extremely motivated by the support. 161 textbooks were purchased. The school will keep hold of the books and pass them out to pupils to be used in class. ATE (which will assist in monitory book use, ed.) will report on rates of enrolment, attendance, retention and later on, examination results.
ATE sent us a lovely picture of children and staff holding aloft the new books, clearly delighted with this new resource. Mr. Abeo Emmanuel Baba wrote: with these textbooks I believe that the level of learning of the students will increase and improve their performance in their studies and their exam results. We look forward to hearing about the school’s progress, Mr. Baba!
Siawkrom D/A Primary School
This is a rural school in the Eastern Region, running largely on the goodwill of its dedicated staff. Our representative, Patrick Nyante, visited the school and was impressed by the efforts made and the good relationship with the community. We received a request for funding for teachers’ tables and chairs, cupboards and pupils’ desks, with detailed cost estimates. We allocated £1240 towards this project.
11 March 2018
Here is part of a thank you letter from Solomon Kwabena Gyimah on behalf of the school: I, on behalf of the staff, PTA executives of Siawkrom D/A Primary School and the entire community write to express our profound gratitude and appreciation for giving us a grant of GHC 6,800 for furniture in the school. the grant has made a significant impact in the social and academic life of the pupils. The memory of your organization will forever linger in the hearts of the school as you are the only organization that has extended an arm to the school. […] The furniture has made teaching and learning very effective, comfortable and conducive. […] The desks have solved the problem (of copying) and now comfortability, independent work is a hallmark. The pupils’ handwriting is now improving as a result of their new sitting arrangements. Teachers can now sit in the comfort of their chairs to mark pupils’ work and other related classroom tasks, which was not so in the past.
Agrave D/A Basic School, Asutifi North
The request for funding 60 tables and chairs for JHS and 40 dual desks for Primary classrooms did not fall on deaf ears. £1000 was allocated towards their purchase. Asutifi is in the Brong Ahafo region.
Gadara Academy, Sekondi
The school is situated at Ngyiresia, a fishing community near Sekondi, Western Region. When it was visited by our representative, Kofi Ohene, the two-storey building comprised a Nursery, KG, Primary and JHS classes, total enrolment 120, with 17 teachers. Although GSA is wary of funding ICT equipment because maintenance problems often render equipment unviable, the positive report we received led us to allocate £1760 for the purchase of 4 or more computers to go into the burglar-proof, furnished ICT laboratory.
UPDATE May 2017 Five desktop computers were delivered in 18 April, plus a Power Surge Protector. Here’s a picture of the boxes, and we’re told all five are now fully functional.
Hassaniya Islamic Primary School
This school of 300 pupils and 15 teachers, which is not far from the Zawiatul Irfan school, has acquired doors and windows for its classrooms but lacked the funds to get them fitted. On the recommendation of our representative, Salifu Baako, we awarded this school the requested £440 needed for the fitting.
Shafieya Primary School
Mubarick Seidu, a teacher in Shafieya, emailed GSA in August 2016 with the following message: “Currently we have 14 teachers. We have 400 pupils from Kindergarten 1 to Primary 6. We have numerous challenges in the school but what we need currently is the completion of classrooms which have been built and roofed but lack windows, doors, plastering and floors. Furniture is also a problem: sometimes, pupils in P1 and P2 have to sit on the bare floor to do their exercises. We do hope you will come to our aid.” He added later that labour would be provided by the community and that water was not a problem as there was a well in the school. Mr. Seidu also provided estimates of costs.
GSA agreed a grant of £1240 and our representative in Tamale, Salifu Baako, visited the school both before and after the work was done. We received these pictures in November 2016. Congratulations to all for the wonderful and rapid work!
The building before renovation
A classroom before renovation
The beautiful new veranda
A newly screeded floor 
One of the new classrooms
Brilliant new shutters and doors
Plato Academy, Bolgatanga
This school was previously known as “Firm Foundation”. (You can read earlier posts on this website by clicking on the firm-foundations tag.) Following a presentation by Dr. Anafu at our 2014 AGM, a grant of £1400 was sent for work on the building. Jo Hallett visited this privately-run primary school in June 2016 and received a very warm welcome. It is situated in the middle of many other buildings on the edge of Bolgatanga. Seven or eight classes are based in ground floor rooms, in reasonable repair. The classes were very well ordered and clearly good teaching was going on. Jo was impressed at the level of the pupils’ reading ability. The GSA grant to renovate the building was much appreciated and had been put to good use. The school is now constructing a second floor but progress is slow
.
Work on the second floor
Break time!
Children in class
Children in class
Ghana School Aid 